How to Survive Draco Malfoy
by Cearlya
Summary: Surviving Draco Malfoy in five not so easy steps as told by Hermione Granger.
1. Sod it All

This has been rattling around on DA for a while, and now MUST be migrated here. Enjoy!

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How to Survive Draco Malfoy

Part one: Sod It All With a Wrackspurted Dung Beetle

"Sod it all with a wrakspurted dung beetle!" I jumped up and down, clutching my foot desperately, trying to smooth out the feeling that someone had impaled me under my toenails. The explicative was learned from Ron and used to great effect. I sat down in the middle of the hall, papers previously tucked into my hand crinkling under me as I peeled off a sock to examine the toenails to find the blood blister where my toenail had bent. The hall was almost deserted, a witch hurrying away as I continued to mutter dire threats under my breath. I finally got a hold on the pain well enough to survey around me and groaned as I realized that my work for the morning was spread out in a fan where it had tumbled from my arms. I glared at the offending floorboard as it mocked me, standing innocently cockeyed, an inch off kilter. Here I am, sitting in the middle of the most important magical hub in England, in a branch that they can't bother to even out the floorboards.

"Bad day, Granger?" Faux sympathy rolled off of his tounge easily as he waited for me to gather my things. Naturally, he didn't offer a hand. Having reached my limit, after the coffee machine being broken and my boss being completely bollocks, I took my pointy shoe that had caught on said floorboard and stabbed it into his foot. Not near bad enough to draw blood or anything of the sort, but hard enough to bruise even through expensive leather shoes and ultimately, very satisfying. He automatically doubled over, clutching at his now throbbing foot. "Holy flaming merlin's balls, woman!"

"Piss off, you wanker. I am not in the mood today." He really should have known better to torment me while I was stressed and he was within range. I had punched him third year, you'd think that'd give him a lesson. If while taunting, the wildly repressed Granger is exhibiting signs of frustration, be sure to keep out of range. Be doubly sure to be capable of legging it out of there as soon as possible, so as to avoid subsequent damage to progenating manly bits. I retrieved my shoe and put it back on, wincing as my foot began to throb. I began to gather the papers that fell to the ground. He blew out a snorting noise of annoyance and flicked his fingers to the creases of his pressed trousers, so he could crouch down next to me. To say I was shocked would vastly undervalue my surprise. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" He started picking up my papers, and arranging them into neat stacks. I seethed as he peeked over his shoulder to give me a patronizing look. "And you came first in our year? I'm getting the mess you made out of the middle of the hall."

My mouth opened and closed a few times, and I fixed him with a homicidal look that was passed down from Granger woman to Granger woman from many generations back. Grandmum had a gimlet eye that gave Molly Weasley a run for her money. Naturally, he ignored it and continued stacking my papers as if he couldn't feel my thoughts begging to rend him limb from limb. It was a bad day alright. While I was still gaping like a fish out of water, he shoved the stack of paper into my arms.

"Thank you very much, I am now going to be twenty minutes late instead of just ten, because I now have to get something for my foot." He fixed me with his own silver eyes and they pinned me to the wall far better than mine probably would ever work on anyone. They were angry, but I could still see something on the sides of them, exhaustion. He looked even more tired than me.

He limped outrageously to the end of the corridor, dragging his foot like he was lame, but as soon as he turned the corner, I could hear his footsteps turn brisk and normal. He always was a ridiculous faker. When I finally eased into my desk, my secretary, the old Ravenclaw Penelope Clearwater, who used to date Percy, dropped a small potion next to my elbow with a big grin.

"Big, tall fellow we knew from Hogwarts, you know, the loud, obnoxious one, dropped this off for you a bit ago, said you might be needing it. He made some extra for his foot and said it seemed as though you would need it as much as he did." I stared at it in awe, and more than a little trepidation. He couldn't have dropped it off, could he? And if he did, was it safe to drink? Then again, he did help me pick up my papers, and he wasn't still a teenager. We were both mature, confident adults and could deal with this in a mature, confident way.

"Could you um, taste it for me so I know if it tastes like manky laundry and I need to get something to drink afterwards or not?" Penelope gave me an odd look, but seeing as she loved working for me and I knew it, I knew she could handle an eclectic request or two. She took a sip and swished it around in her mouth a bit before swallowing.

"Tastes a bit like peppermint." Perhaps it was from being the child of two dentists, but I adored peppermint. She gave me another odd look and then wandered back to her desk to continue working. I watched her for well over an hour as I started to repair the damage done by my spill. After that hour was up, my toe felt no better, and my secretary showed no signs of ill effects, I braved the potion. Oh blessed relief at last! The throbbing retreated instantly to a dull ache, and I felt my shoe loosen and the swelling went down. Fine, maybe Malfoy had grown up a bit at last, but I still wasn't taking any chances.


	2. Ignore the Pirahna at your knees

How to Survive Draco Malfoy

Part two: Ignore the Piranha At Your Knees

The next time I saw him, I just about spit my coffee out on to him, he took me by surprise. It was an empty room that echoed as I sat down with my paper and obligatory cup of coffee for my fifteen minute break in the morning. I always had coffee and a scone, read the paper, packed up my things and went back to work. It was my routine and it was lovely. Fifteen minutes a day, shaved off of my hour for lunch that I could relax and there would be no one in the cafeteria. Naturally he had to go and ruin it.

When he sat down, it was with a large book and a cup of coffee. I tried to ignore him. If there is one thing more infuriating about that man more than anything else, it was the fact that he was shiny. He was like a big shiny nickel covered in obscure writing that you almost always leaned forward to figure out. And then he had you, you're attention, the thing that he craved more than anything else. Trying to ignore him was like trying to ignore a piranha as it went for your knees.

After what seemed to be every chapter, he would look up at me, open his mouth, shake his head and go back to reading. It would be three more days before he could get a word out.

"I-" That was it. He bit his tounge and then went back to his book. It was driving me mental.

"Look, I understand that you have some strange urge to torment me, but don't you have a job? Something that earns you money?" His eyes were wide, silver and startled. "Why are you bothering me?"

"I actually don't need to work much, most of my enterprises have earned enough money on their own." He looked thoughtful and I almost wanted to punch him in the face again. My paycheck barely stretched to cover my bills. Merlin, the boy brought out the worst in me, I was usually so even tempered! He gave me a beautific smile as he packed up his things and left, making me realize that he never answered the second question. He didn't come back to bother me again but I did find an unsigned note with a strangely cryptic message, _I'm sorry _ensconced in my desk.

The next time I saw him surprised me just as much but I had no coffee to almost spit at him, I was in a bookstore. I was making my way down the shelves of dusty tomes when both of our hands alighted on the same treatise written by some old Muggle fogey. Suddenly, he was there with his tired eyes and his perfectly pressed pants that I almost assuredly not looking at because it would be quite indecent. My hand was lower than his as he was a good six inches taller at least, but he had a better grip. It was the only one in stock. I opened my mouth to protest when he shoved it into my hands.

"You take it, I'm assured you have to get back to work and I've got nothing else to do for today. I'll track down another copy." Again, the boy left me speechless. I swallowed to clear my throat as he turned away.

"I could-" He froze, and looked at me, his eyes pinched around the edges. "I only need it through this Thursday, if you would like to pick it up afterward, that would be alright. You know where I work."

"I suppose I could do that." One side of his mouth pulled up in a half smile. He nodded to me and left me wondering what part of my traitorous brain came up with that brilliant plan.

He came to claim the book from me Thursday evening only minutes before I headed home for the night. Penelope let him in as I was settling the rest of my paperwork for the night. I smiled and waved vaguely towards the stack of books, not really looking at him as I continued to write things down. There was the rustling of leather and paper as he slid the book out from the middle of the stack and then something large and heavy landed in the middle of where I was working.

"If you liked that one, this was recommended to me to be a companion treatise." It was easily three inches thick and not something to you would carry around frivolously. I glanced up to the challenge in his eyes. I gave the book a long look. I could finish it tonight if I had the proper motivation. I smiled sweetly up at Malfoy and he looked quite taken aback.

"Have a good evening, Malfoy." The side of his mouth quirked up in a half smile, not unlike the smirk of our school years, but warmer.

"You too Granger."

By morning he had a foot long scroll discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the book, my opinions and the usefulness of the text, especially in reference to the previously used text. I had only had to stay up 10 minutes longer than my normal bedtime to finish it.

By lunch time, I found a rebuttal sneaking its way into my paperwork, referencing some obscure texts that I had never even heard of and realized how Draco Malfoy came in second year. I found those texts in the library at Hogwarts as I called in a favor from Neville over the weekend and Draco Malfoy was delivered a two foot long reactionary scroll, complete with a two inch retraction of a misstated theory that I found collected in another text. Thus explaining how I came in first.

Harry and Ron were beginning to complain about the fact that I was getting quite hysterical about it all and they were almost frightened that the books on my shelves were staring at them.

"Hermione, you're beginning to look like you did in third year, when you went a bit mental with classes." Ron was concerned. It was a pity it never lasted more than a year between us, he did try to take care of me.

"I'm with Ron, you might want to slow down a bit." Harry stuffed in a bit more of dinner, roast duck, mashed potatoes and pumpkin juice, before continuing. "I know it's making you happy, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing..."

He quailed before my gimlet stare.

"Fun? You think I'm having fun?" I felt as though my hair was cackling with energy, about to explode. I probably shouldn't brush it for a while. "I am stressed beyond relief, thank Merlin for this weekend!"

"Yeah, well, with Malfoy going around being all bloody cheerful and whistling all the time, I assumed you were both having-" Ron stopped to put his hands on my shoulders and shake me a bit as I began to turn strange colors in the face. He was enjoying himself! "'Mione? 'Mione, breathe."

Harry fetched the cure-all, my old, tattered copy of Hogwarts, A History for me and sat me down with it. He stroked my hair a bit before I was able to relax and sniffle into its pages. I rejoined the social interaction as I had my hands clenched on the book from my childhood that I had loved so dear, but they were talking about the Quidditch teams, and it slowly devolved into an argument about the Cannon's chances of winning the championship.

Weeks of witty, scholastic repartee later, the lift doors opened and I nearly dropped the stack of books cradled in my arms as I lurched forward. They were tucked under my chin, clamped successfully, if precariously. I leaned against the very back, as the lift shot off, tilting my head back to gently rest on the wall. I closed my eyes and sighed as the doors opened again, far too soon to be my stop. Suddenly, the books were lifted out of my arms and my eyes shot open.

"It's supposed to rain today, did you know?" His voice was smooth and clear as always, his arms not even straining in the least as he held the books easily in his longer arms.

"What?" I asked, still surprised at the absence of weight and more, where it had gone. The doors opened again, letting in several witches and a wizard, making the two of us crowd together in the corner. The fabric of his coat brushed against my arm and I felt my cheeks flush as I was sure that he was going to have some of my hair on it. My hair got everywhere. He flashed me one of his signature grins, and I could almost hear the ping resonate in the small box. Then I realized it was the lift's bell and he sailed out the door, my books still in hand. Being bigger, and having a load, the people to the front of the elevator parted to let him past, but snapped shut behind him. I had to carry on to the next floor and take the stairs back down.

By the time I got to my desk, the books were neatly arranged on the corner, the only bare space, and a dark, emerald green umbrella with silver trim sat mocking me on my chair. I smiled at his thoughtfulness and sat down to work, only to find that he had scrawled across my desk in un-erasable ink. Scourgify merely made it go neon.

"It's supposed to rain today and rain makes your hair even bushier than normal. Save us all the sight and use an umbrella."

Penelope looked startled out of her wits when she threw open the door at my outraged shriek.

"What is the matter?" I pointed furiously at my desk and she read the message before bursting into laughter. "Well, he does have a point, your hair does get curlier when it rains."

I gave her a look of pure affront, and she sailed out of my door laughing. Clearly she was the one that let him in, she did think that he was charming. I sat down immediately to draw up the form for psychiatric evaluation for her.


	3. Be Scared Absolutely Witless

How to Survive Draco Malfoy

Part three: Be Scared Absolutely Witless

I sometimes wondered if it was all some sort of sick plan that he pieced together to ensure maximum discomfort for me. I would have to shake myself to be reminded that the time for rampant paranoia that everyone was out to get me ended years ago. Now, no one but single witches that liked to ignore the fact that Harry was very, very much together with Ginny or were very interested in Ron, even cared to socially interact. I rarely go out, preferring to spend quiet evenings with Harry, Ron and Ginny, and almost never to a bar, but the girls in the office had invited me. I felt it rude to say no. I ran a few minutes late, and had to slide into the only remaining space at the bar.

Which is how I ended up on the other side of Draco bloody Malfoy as he had the blonde trying to inch her way into his pants. He looked highly uncomfortable as the pretty girl got awfully friendly with him, the more she drank. The liquid in his glass didn't look anything like beer or wine, but he looked alright to me. Highly uncomfortable turned to absolutely terrified as her hand started to slide up his leg and he had no where else to go, as he was at the edge of the bar stool already. I tipped my glass of beer onto his arm and then jumped up, pulling him with me. The blonde nearly toppled off with him.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry! Lets get that cleaned up, shall we?" I clamped a hand on his elbow and that spot in his cheek that ticked when he was in pain made a small motion. I pulled him away from the table and he gave me a look so full of gratitude that I actually felt sorry for him. We made it to the front of the bar and out the doors without anyone but the very tipsy girl noticing. She was already moving on to other prey. I dropped his arm like a warm brand. "I'm done, I'm going home."

"Thank you." I stared at him, trying to figure out if he were joking or not. He smiled that strange, lopsided grin again, and then turned, a little shakily and dipped dangerously. Apparently he was drinking more than I thought. He soldiered on until I took his arm and pulled him up to a standing position next to me.

"Alright look, I'll side along you to my place, get you sobered up and then send you home again." He was still smiling.

"I always drink too much at these things, but birds these days terrify me." He said it in a confiding tone and I wondered if he knew who he was talking to.

"What about me?" I was somewhat curious if I scared him as well. "Do I scare you?"

"Absolutely witless. You've punched me and stabbed my toe." He said it promptly and without ceremony. I nearly let him drop in a heap and left him, but something in his soft 'thank you' of earlier made me keep him upright. That and, well, I did kind of deserve that. Sort of. If you squinted and cocked your head to the left. "But if you think about it, I've already had the worst, you already hate me. What else could go wrong? So I really shouldn't be scared of you, you already think the worst."

"Well." I stopped, and his head rolled back to stare at me. Now that he wasn't terrified, he was acting a lot more drunk that he should have been. "I don't think that I hate you anymore."

"That's good, because I don't hate you." He gave me that half smile again and I actually managed to smile back. Somewhere along the way, the two of us stopped being the ten year olds who would have done anything to hurt each other. We grew up.

I entered my flat with a sharp crack and dropped Malfoy on the sofa. He let out a sharp oof and groaned. I filled him up a glass of water and was just coming into the living room with it to be treated to a view of a glorious expanse of lily white skin over chiseled muscles. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the refined businesswoman, successful and needing no man wailed as the entire rest of my brain shorted out and made a little 'eep' noise. Tragic, really. He was staring at the still wet sleeve of his shirt and the corresponding stain on the side with an almost sad air. He turned to notice me and the successful business woman had to hold her breath. He was, there was just no other words for it, beautiful.

"Do you have another shirt I could borrow, this one is quite ruined." He asked it, completely comfortable in his half naked-ness. Without another word, I fled to my bedroom and had to sit down on my bed for several seconds and chant to myself.

"He is Draco Malfoy, son of the two most prominent Death Eaters, he probably was a Death Eater. Under no circumstances are you allowed to think he is attractive, because underneath the nice person you've been seeing lately, he probably still has the personality of bulbotuber pus." The part of me that had gotten me through my six years of Hogwarts and subsequent years of being Harry Potter's best friend, stiffened its backbone and went to find the largest t-shirt I owned.

He was standing by the fireplace when I came back and he slipped on the shirt, big on me, fitting snugly on him. So snugly, it probably didn't make a difference if it were on or off. Personally, I preferred off, not as though I was attracted or anything. Right. I handed him the floo powder as he tugged the shirt strait and he took a handful. I put the powder away, only to have him standing right behind me.

I held my breath as he leaned down, and my eyes fluttered closed. His fingertips ghosted across my cheek and then, in a whoosh of flames, he was gone. I fumed for a bit and ended up throwing a book across the room, angry for looking like such a fool.

Penelope had a ridiculously large grin on her face and winked outrageously when I stepped into my office the next morning. I paused for a moment, and contemplated that meticulously filled out psyche evaluation request form that was currently lurking in the paperwork on my desk. Unfortunately, I didn't think that the department would accept 'weakness for Malfoys of a certain Draconian nature' to be a viable disorder. Certainly not a treatable one. The most I could do was smile and grit my teeth, absolutely terrified of what he must have done to my desk now.

I crept into my office, my deranged colleague lurking behind me. I was tense, my fingers were clenched into fists at my side and I flinched as I approached my desk, really, really not wanting to find out what was on it until the last possible moment. Penelope gasped.

A single, dark-pink rose lay across my desk, entwined with a pink daffodil, surrounded by stems of blue, bell-like flowers. All in all, it was a stunning bouquet and I could see the note proclaiming 'Thanks,' from here.

"Oh dear." Penelope gasped out. I looked at the flowers, and noticed they were getting pollen all over my desk. Trust Malfoy to send me a present that would keep on giving! "Do you realize what these are trying to say?"

"That I was a lovely hostess and he's glad I managed to get him home alright last night after he was dead drunk?" I sat down at my desk, still staring at the flowers, trying to figure out what I could put them in to keep them fresh.

"No, the arrangement's too perfect, and I have no idea where he would get Canterbury bells in this time of the year." She dumped the water out of my giant coffee mug that Ron had given me years ago in a joke and refilled it from the water I was going to use for my tea, but never got around to pouring. It was tepid now and quite useless for tea, but fantastic for flowers.

"Canterbury bells, the blue ones. In the language of flowers, they mean gratitude, so there would be your thanks. The dark-pink rose means thanks as well, but the daffodils," She slanted me a look as I looked at her as if she were insane. Plants couldn't mean anything, they were just pretty and I almost instinctively blocked up my ears to prevent hearing the next bit. "Also called Narcissus, mean uncertainty in unrequited love."

"Brilliant. He sends me the flower that his mum's named after, to proclaim that he has unrequited passions for me in an absolute bollocks attempt to mess with my head." I shook referenced part and Penelope glared at me.

"I think that if you are laboring under the impression that, the boy that keeps sneaking things into your office, is anything but interested in you-" She stopped and straitened. "Hermione Granger, you are one of the most intelligent people I know. However, in relationships, I must admit that you are, and pardon my French, a right bloody mess."

She flounced out of my office and I opened my mouth and closed it a few times before I gathered the piece of mind to slide the note into the top drawer of my desk, next to the other one. If I had any doubt that the first had come from anyone but Draco, it vanished, leaving behind mass confusion.

How was I ever going to survive Draco Malfoy? I could feel myself going mad already.


	4. Try to Run Far, Far Away

How to Survive Draco Malfoy

Part Four: Try To Run Far, Far Away

I went almost a week without seeing Malfoy, and that proved, at least in my mind, that Penelope clearly desired me to actually file that psyche evaluation that now rested prominently under my elbow at all times. It was liberally spattered with ink from all the other documents, but I didn't mind. Perhaps when I turned in Penelope's request for help, I could turn in one myself. I could even patent a new name for a psychological disorder, obsessiones Malfoyitis. I'm assured I could get Lavendar, Parvarti and Pansy Parkinson in for that one. Pansy had tried to claim Malfoy as an occupational hazard in her office.

I finally broke down and told the gang, about Draco's possible designs upon me and battened down the hatches for the storm of the century. Expecting that I would have to physically restrain one or both of my friends, I enlisted Ginny's help. It was somewhat anticlimactic.

"Well, he's grown up a lot lately. Losing his parents and almost all the fortune, starting from scratch. Its done a lot of good for him." Ron scratched the back of his neck while I gaped. Ginny grabbed onto my arm excitedly. "I think losing Crabbe really hit it home."

"I didn't save Malfoy's life just so he could be the same person that he was, Hermione. I meant for him to be able to forgive, starting with himself." Harry scared me sometimes. He was the epitome of a good person. I wonder sometimes if he's even human. I know he must be, because I've heard the stories that Ginny tells, but still. I bit my lip as Harry carried on.

"He's been really responsible and almost content, recently. He'd been mentioning that he was getting a bit bored being out of Hogwarts and not competing with us anymore." Ron shrunk from me as I fixed him with my stare of disbelief. "I think he mostly missed having you challenge him."

"He's been quite pleasant to all of us on the Harpies." Ginny shrugged. Her team frequently had to attend events with Malfoy present now that he had gone all respectable. It had been a fire pot waiting to happen until they actually talked about it and Malfoy apologized, letting her get one free hex in with her batbogeys. She didn't actually hex him, but saved it up for a rainy day when she needed a laugh.

"He was trying to protect his family." Ron put in, having talked the most with him as he was the liaison from the Auror department to the Malfoy enterprise. "I can respect that. You know he didn't want anyone to die."

I watched as a shadow passed over his eyes, remembering those that did. Harry had the final say.

"His mother saved my life." It was quiet, but it rang in the silence and I put my head in my hands. It was a sad, sad day indeed when Ron was a voice of acceptance and reason. Harry at least had shown prior symptoms.

"Oh for merlin's sake, Hermione. He's rich, he's gorgeous and he can keep up with you in academic pursuits. Just marry the bloke!" Ginny sniffed. "Also, if you think about it, Ron made fun of his name, first."

It degraded into bickering from there, but I was less wound up now. Ron patted me awkwardly on the head as I sighed noisily and Harry merely grinned as he watched Ginny reenact a stunning play by her fellow Harpies for what had to have been the third time that week.

A week went by, and I still didn't see him anywhere, it seemed as though he was avoiding me. And by avoiding me, I meant made it so I wasn't tripping over him at odd opportunities. I got even more skittish than I had been when he was jumping out at me at odd times and nearly brained Penelope when she showed up with my coffee. But nothing. I found myself getting bored.

I traced Draco to the only person I knew that was his friend that worked in my building, Pansy Parkinson. I hadn't seen her since Hogwarts, but she looked good. Short black hair made you forget her pug nose and while she still held the same tiredness around her eyes as Draco, betraying that she, too, was working under the strain of atoning for sins not your own, she still managed to have a slight hint of a smile about her mouth. She looked up as I entered her office.

"Oh, it's you." Not the most pleasant of hello's but the two of us have had worse. I took a deep breath and tried to remember that it was all in the past now. "Please, by Merlin's name, go talk to Draco."

"What?" My mouth gaped open in surprise as she wearily sat in her chair and put her head in her hands.

"All I ever hear about is Hermione said this, and Hermione said that. I love that boy to pieces and beyond like a brother, but I swear he's driving me mental." She gave me a pleading look. "He tried to explain one of your essays to me the other day and I was giving serious thought to killing myself with my quill. How can you two enjoy that sort of thing?" Pansy threw up her hands in frustration. "You know what? I don't care. I don't want to know. All I know is that if you don't go talk to him, I'm going to start circulating those pictures of you in first year with the buck teeth and even frizzier hair than you have now.

"Are you threatening me?" I asked incredulously. Like no one had ever tried that before. Pansy gave me a glare that could inspire an Adava Kedavra to spring to one's own throat and choke them. I merely scoffed. "Because I've been threatened by worse than you and lived to tell of it."

"I know, but I don't think they had access to your childhood photos or were as good as me with gossip spreading. They threatened to end your life, I threaten to make it miserable." Pansy put up the paper, ignoring me, and I realized she had a point. "There is a large and distinct difference."

I backed out of her office slowly, realizing suddenly that Pansy was as terrifying as Bellatrix, just slightly less crazy and in a different way.

Which is how I ended up at Malfoy manor, knocking on the large door with the huge door knockers. They felt like mountains in my hands as I tried to knock and stop myself from knocking at the same time. I could hear the thudding booms on the other side of the door and waited for as long as I could make myself wait, which was a total of two seconds. I was halfway down the path again when the door opened. Suddenly, after a week of his absence he was filling the doorway, the light bouncing off of his hair. He was smiling that little half smile again. This time my heart did something funny and I couldn't believe it. I clapped a hand to it, demanding that it behave.

"Hallo. Fancy meeting you here." His smile turned cheeky. Then he taunted me. "Planning on running away?"

Once again, that bit inside of me that lived through my last year of when I should have been at Hogwarts, stiffened its backbone and stomped back towards the door. He stepped back into the foyer and my arm brushed against his chest as I passed, leaving me with a little electric tingle on my skin.

The rooms looked completely different from when I was last here, prisoner of Belletrix and the Malfoys. I felt a shiver nonetheless, not completely comfortable. Noticing it, Draco waved his wand and the room dissolved into the Library at Hogwarts. I instantly relaxed.

"I'm sorry, I should have taken into account the feelings you would have towards my home. Please, make yourself comfortable, I'll be right back with some tea." He left me sitting in a squashy chair, incongruous with the library setting around us. A quick inspection left me with the conclusion that it was merely an illusion of the library but I could still pull the books off of the shelves to inspect them. I dropped them from my hands when he returned. He set the tea gently on the table and took a seat next to where I was originally. I joined him, as far away on the couch as I could get. I tucked my legs primly underneath me, smoothing out my knee length skirt as it spread across my thighs. His hands were busy pouring me a cup of tea, but he watched me out of the corner of his eye. I could feel a faint blush stain my cheeks.

He handed me my tea and the blush darkened when our fingertips brushed together. I almost dropped the scalding cup straight into his lap. Needless to say, he was rather relieved that I didn't, and poured one for himself.

"So why have you come to my humble abode?" Even though it currently looked like the Hogwarts library, there were still plush hangings and obscure texts that I could only begin to price. Humble it was not, however much of an abode it may be.

"I-" I worried my lip a bit as his eyes burned into me like the tea burned my fingers. Warm, but not scalding. When I continued, my voice was very small. "I may have kind of missed you."

A true grin spread on his face, and he gently took one of my hands from my tea cup, after setting down his own. He turned it over and kissed the inside of my wrist. I nearly dropped the tea into my own lap and in the back of my head felt the same sort of panic that he had only moments before. I carefully put the tea on the coffee table and turned to face him. He still held my hand.


	5. Acceptance

How to Survive Draco Malfoy

Part Five: Acceptance

My breath caught in my throat to see how he was looking at me. Like we could be in a crowded room, but I would still be the only person that he would see. I tried to breathe normally as his hand snaked around my neck to pull me almost into his lap. I let him, sliding closer, his hands warm through my silk, button up shirt as the other curled around me to hold me tight to him. Suddenly, the room was too warm as he tucked his head into the collar of my shirt, his lips sliding under to find my pulse point. He pulled back as I had made no motions towards him or reciprocated the attention. I was mostly shocked, both at myself and at him. He started to look panicked so I wound his tie around my fingers and pulled him forward, pressing my lips to his.

He responded immediately, pulling me on top of him as he tumbled backward onto the couch. I lay there, and could feel every inch where our bodies were touching, the warmth of him cutting cleanly through my thin blouse and bare legs. His hands slid up my back, leaving a burning trail behind and I found out the first of many things that Draco could do, that would make me squirm. I burst out laughing.

"Stop! Stop, that tickles." His tounge stopped in its hot trail up my earlobe, and he bit down, completing a number two to go on the list. The list was growing rapidly.

"I'll stop," his breath was hot on my neck and brushed across the hairs by my ear, "When you can name all twelve uses of Dragon's blood." I propped myself up a bit, crossing my hands under my chin and rattled them off promptly. I got through my NEWTs without batting an eye, Draco Malfoy was no big deal. He sighed, then rolled over on the couch, pinning me under him. There was no more room to talk.

The next day I practically skipped into my office and Penelope gave me a look of fear when she caught sight of my extremely large grin.

"Good morning!" I proclaimed, practically skipping into my office. I was a bit tired, as I hadn't returned to my flat until late, but still buoyant. We had spent a large amount of time talking, and even larger part kissing, and some part of the time doing both. I threw open my door, expecting the rather dramatic Draco Malfoy to have done something spectacular.

Nothing.

I wasn't dissapointed, no, not at all. That sinking feeling in my chest, the feeling that now that he had what he wanted, he would give up trying wasn't at all related to Draco Malfoy.

Then the room exploded. Flower petals covered the floor, a whirlwind of deep red rose, and he suddenly sat in my chair, twirling a blood red rose, even darker of a red than the petals on the floor, with that lopsided smile that I now knew was only for me.

"You know, this is going to take forever to clean up." No, that bubbly feeling in my chest was not happiness. I stopped for a second, giving Draco an appalled look. Buggar me, it was happiness. Draco's smile turned nervous.

"Uh, the petals on the floor are just illusions, I didn't want you to trip and fall. The ones on your desk are real." He took a step back, as if he were about to flee. I backed to the door of my office carefully and stuck my head out.

"I don't have any more appointments the rest of the afternoon, do I Penelope?" It was light but I felt my giddiness shine through.

"No, Hermione, you're free all the rest of today, but Shacklebolt wants the paper on-"

"Right, right. Hold on." I had finished the paper last week, and delivered it to Penelope's hands, for her to give to Kingsley. Then I vanished so only my head was poking out. "I'll see you tomorrow, knock if you need anything. I probably won't answer."

Penelope just laughed, and packed up everything to go home.

"Don't you have work, or do you spend all of your time, mucking about with me?" I was curious. I had also lost my shoes somewhere and the two of us were sitting on the edge of my desk, him playing with my fingers while I leaned on his shoulder.

"Muck about with you, mostly." He sounded bemused and tweaked my fingers. I gave him a glare in protest which he happily ignored. "I spend all my time staring at the ceiling, trying to come up with brilliant plans to amuse and confuse you."

"Bollocks. Total bollocks." I sniffed. Then a thought occurred to me. "How, by Merlin's left kneecap, are we going to tell people?"

"I vote letting them find out on their own, it's much more fun that way." He turned to me to smile and I felt my insides go a bit funny. "Have I ever mentioned how utterly charming your explicatives are?"

"They're Ron's. Oh no!" I clapped a hand to my mouth as a thought caused utter dismay to sweep through me.

"Yes, oh-woman-who-knows-all?" He brought the back of my hand to his mouth to kiss and it wasn't until he cocked his eyebrow in question that I realized that train of thought actually had gone somewhere. It had left me behind for a moment.

"I'm going to be dodging Witch Weekly reporters forever now." I said it miserably, and Draco smiled that little half grin again before sliding a hand behind my neck and pulling me forward. Suddenly, I didn't really care that I would be followed by paparazzi and stalked by girls like Lavender and Parvati. I was pondering what really made me go mental and like Draco Malfoy of all people when he discovered number three to add to my list of things that could make me squirm. I realized it was because we made a thoroughly pleasant couple and reached the final stage of surviving Draco Malfoy.

Acceptance.

* * *

This is actually the beginning of an entire AU series that I am working on, the same one as Three Hot Teas and several other Hermione/Draco's that will be coming soon. And by soon I mean in about ten minutes, so go check them out!

Thanks for reading!

3 Brangienne


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